Interventional cardiology changes and saves lives. Find out how in these personal stories.

The First Coronary Angioplasty Patient

• Dolf Bachmann - The First Patient: On Sept. 16, 1977, 38-year-old Dolf Bachmann became the first patient to undergo balloon angioplasty. Now 68 years old, Bachmann describes himself "in excellent condition, free of complications and happy all around."

Heart Attack Survivors

• Rick Barnes: When Rick left his job and headed home, he had a normal day planned. Little did he know that less than 24 hours later, he would have a massive heart attack and go on to survive a night which, according to his physicians, he should not have lived through.
• Jan Brown: Jan Brown thought it might be the flu. She suddenly felt as if a three-inch wide steel belt were wrapped - and tightening - around the top of her shoulders. She told her friends, "Boy, all of a sudden I don't feel good. And now my jaw hurts." Jan was having a heart attack.
• Laura Geraghty: For 57 minutes she did she did not move or speak. She did not breathe by herself. Her heart did not beat. She could never have imagined how lucky she would soon be.
• Stephen Petruccelli: A lifelong athlete, Stephen's blood pressure and cholesterol levels had always checked out well in the "normal" range. When the ER nurse announced he was having a heart attack, he had to ask: "Why me?"
• Ron Robinson: Fifty-year-old Ron realized he was having a heart attack and acted quickly. He was surprised to learn he also had PAD and that it was at the root of the constant pain he'd been living with. Fortunately, both the blockages in his heart and in his leg were treatable.
• Peggy Vardeman: Peggy began having heart problems years ago. Each time she has had a scare, she has noted back pain, nausea, and sweating -- not the stereotypical crushing chest pain portrayed in the movies.
• Melissa Wagner: "No way could I be having a heart attack," thought 40-year-old Melissa. "I always assumed a heart attack would feel like a stabbing chest pain that would continue until treatment. That wasn't like my symptoms at all."

Angina (Chest Pain) Patients

Unstable Angina

• Jack Blatherwick: All of a sudden, Jack couldn't take 50 steps into his four-mile daily walk without extreme chest pain. Jack had angina - the chest pain that occurs when arteries to the heart are blocked and the heart is starved for oxygen.

Stable Angina

• Frank Tetterton:  Heart disease was just about the last thing on Frank's mind. It was tempting to ignore the pain in his shoulder, easy to label it an old football injury acting up. Fortunately, a friend insisted he go for a treadmill test.

Cardiac Arrest Survivors

• Frank Marshall: Sixty-nine-year-old retiree Frank Marshall was out bowling with friends. Before the game was over, he was being rushed to the emergency room. Frank's heart had stopped beating and he was in severe hypotensive shock.

Coronary Artery Disease Patients

• Martin Kelly: Martin Kelly was 45 years old when he began to experience shortness of breath, slight chest pain and numbness in his arms - symptoms with which he was all too familiar, with a considerable family history of heart disease.
• Marianne Lawrence: Marianne thought her shoulder pain was the flare-up of an old skiing injury, but a stress test revealed serious cardiovascular disease requiring immediate care.

Carotid Artery Disease Patients

• Jim Sparacino: Jim, a lead singer in a nine-piece band, had a 94 percent blockage in his left carotid artery. Upon the recommendation of his interventional cardiologist, Jim chose carotid angioplasty and stenting for treatment rather than surgery to avoid the risk of injury to his vocal chords.

Structural Heart Disease Patients

Children

• Xander Bowen: Xander was born with a heart defect called truncus arteriosus, and underwent surgery two days after birth. In truncus arteriosus, a single large vessel carries blood from the heart to both the body and lungs.
• Anna Grace Bundros: In 2000, Anna Grace Bundros was a happy and healthy newborn, a bundle of joy to her parents Lara and Tom. Throughout the next six years Anna Grace met every milestone and proved to be an active, vibrant little girl who was a very enthusiastic learner. Despite this, Anna Grace was small for her age and often a little lethargic, lacking the energy to play for hours like other kids her age.
• Lauren Gray: Thirty-nine years ago in a rural North Carolina hospital, doctors told Ken and Cindy Gray their daughter was "born blue and there was nothing they could do for her."  After being transferred to another hospital Lauren's condition was identified as Tetralogy of Fallot a congenital heart defect (CHD) where the pulmonary valve and the pathway where blood leaves the heart's lower right-chamber are narrowed, making it hard to pass blood through to the lungs.
• Paige Johnson: Paige Johnson was a seemingly healthy two-year-old when her mom took her in for a routine wellness check. In the process of investigating a heart murmur, her cardiologist discovered Paige suffered from patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), which was putting strain on Paige's heart and could eventually lead to congestive heart failure or irreversible damage.
• Claire Kurz: Twenty-two weeks into the pregnancy, from an ultrasound to screen their baby's heart, Josie and Michael Kurz learned their baby had two major congenital heart defects: transposition of the great arteries (TGA), and a ventricular septal defect (VSD). 
• Maya Miller: Maya's mother remembers what it was like to touch her daughter's small chest. "You couldn't feel a heart beat. All you could feel was this rush of blood," she recalls. Maya had a large PDA, or patent ductus arteriosus, and an enlarged heart.
• Harper O'Bomsawin: An echocardiogram revealed that Harper had a coarctation of the aorta (CoA). a check-in with the pediatric cardiologist revealed scar tissue was building up in the aorta, causing it to re-narrow. Harper either would need to undergo repeat surgery or an angioplasty procedure to widen the vessel.

Adults

• Ed Hohman: Suffering from severe aortic stenosis-a narrowing of the aortic valve-Ed Hohman was so short of breath he was barely able to walk. His cardiologist told him it would be too risky to have heart surgery. Now, with a heart valve implanted through a catheter, Mr. Hohman is on the leading edge of medical technology.

Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) Patients

Upper or Lower Extremity (Limb) Disease

• Ron Robinson: Fifty-year-old Ron realized he was having a heart attack and acted quickly. He was surprised to learn he also had PAD and that it was at the root of the constant pain he'd been living with. Fortunately, both the blockages in his heart and in his leg were treatable.